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I do not completely understand your points. Shouldn't hospitals have multiple surgeons? If one of them is on vacation, the other one does the work, and vice v

I do not completely understand your points. Shouldn't hospitals have multiple surgeons? If one of them is on vacation, the other one does the work, and vice versa?

Galanwe 6y ago
I don't think surgeons are fongible assets. There is a lot of planning and study taking place before a complex operation. Not to mention most surgeons have specialties.
- watwut 6y ago
  The long term plans and studied for surgeries can be moved one day forward or backward basically by definition.
  - travmatt 6y ago
    Except if something changes suddenly and surgery is suddenly needed - that’s what makes it an emergency.
- daniellarusso 6y ago
  A surgeon seems more fungible than a developer, to me. All sorts of standards, compliance, and licensing requirements.
  - jrh206 6y ago
    Nobody's making any points about developers My gut instinct is that this is incorrect, too, but I don't know enough about surgery to make a compelling argument. I'd back myself to pick up Ruby (a language I've never touched before) and be productive, more than I'd trust a surgeon who only has experience with heart surgery to operate on my brain. Maybe that's ignorant of me.
    - mekkkkkk 6y ago
      Even if a Ruby bug would mean death? EDIT: I take this back. I missed the point of the argument.
      - ceejayoz 6y ago
        That'd change the risks, sure. I don't think that's the scenario @jrh206 was talking about, though. Most code written in Ruby doesn't have the sort of immediate risk to life or limb surgeries do.
  - ceejayoz 6y ago
    Those requirements are fairly general. They don't test for "I've been doing this particularly tricky type of bone biopsy right next to the spinal cord for decades" scenarios.
  - PeterisP 6y ago
    For non-emergency surgeries it's often a long-term relationship where the same doctor who has seen the patient a few times would be the one operating - so if that particular surgeon isn't available for whatever reason, the planned operation would be rescheduled to a different date with the same doctor, not to a different doctor in the same day.
  - marcinzm 6y ago
    Surgeons are generally specialists in one particular area and possibly even specialists within that area (ie: only do knee replacements, etc.). Surgeons get better with experience, it's a skill, and different surgeries are different enough that experience doesn't transfer too much. There's also changes over time in best practices so skills degrade not just due to lack of recent experience. If I remember the best predictor of the outcome of your surgery is how many similar surgeries the doctor does per year.
jgtrosh 6y ago
But the more you avoid birthday surgeries altogether, the more those that end up still happening are extreme cases with high mortality rates. So if your target is to avoid this scary statistical anomaly, you might instead want to promote more benign surgeries on birthdays.
- mrow84 6y ago
  The types of surgeries performed should be controlled for when performing a statistical study.
  - UncleMeat 6y ago
    They were. This entire line of criticism comes from not reading the study methods.
Operyl 6y ago
There’s research, consultations, who is covered under what insurance, etc.

I do not completely understand your points. Shouldn't hospitals have multiple surgeons? If one of them is on vacation, the other one does the work, and vice versa?

Galanwe 6y ago

I don't think surgeons are fongible assets. There is a lot of planning and study taking place before a complex operation. Not to mention most surgeons have specialties.

watwut 6y ago
The long term plans and studied for surgeries can be moved one day forward or backward basically by definition.
- travmatt 6y ago
  Except if something changes suddenly and surgery is suddenly needed - that’s what makes it an emergency.
daniellarusso 6y ago
A surgeon seems more fungible than a developer, to me. All sorts of standards, compliance, and licensing requirements.
- jrh206 6y ago
  Nobody's making any points about developers My gut instinct is that this is incorrect, too, but I don't know enough about surgery to make a compelling argument. I'd back myself to pick up Ruby (a language I've never touched before) and be productive, more than I'd trust a surgeon who only has experience with heart surgery to operate on my brain. Maybe that's ignorant of me.
  - mekkkkkk 6y ago
    Even if a Ruby bug would mean death? EDIT: I take this back. I missed the point of the argument.
    - ceejayoz 6y ago
      That'd change the risks, sure. I don't think that's the scenario @jrh206 was talking about, though. Most code written in Ruby doesn't have the sort of immediate risk to life or limb surgeries do.
- ceejayoz 6y ago
  Those requirements are fairly general. They don't test for "I've been doing this particularly tricky type of bone biopsy right next to the spinal cord for decades" scenarios.
- PeterisP 6y ago
  For non-emergency surgeries it's often a long-term relationship where the same doctor who has seen the patient a few times would be the one operating - so if that particular surgeon isn't available for whatever reason, the planned operation would be rescheduled to a different date with the same doctor, not to a different doctor in the same day.
- marcinzm 6y ago
  Surgeons are generally specialists in one particular area and possibly even specialists within that area (ie: only do knee replacements, etc.). Surgeons get better with experience, it's a skill, and different surgeries are different enough that experience doesn't transfer too much. There's also changes over time in best practices so skills degrade not just due to lack of recent experience. If I remember the best predictor of the outcome of your surgery is how many similar surgeries the doctor does per year.

jgtrosh 6y ago

But the more you avoid birthday surgeries altogether, the more those that end up still happening are extreme cases with high mortality rates. So if your target is to avoid this scary statistical anomaly, you might instead want to promote more benign surgeries on birthdays.

mrow84 6y ago
The types of surgeries performed should be controlled for when performing a statistical study.
- UncleMeat 6y ago
  They were. This entire line of criticism comes from not reading the study methods.

Operyl 6y ago

There’s research, consultations, who is covered under what insurance, etc.